This invention pertains to the art of pollution abatement and more particularly to effecting combustion in effluent gases having undesirable odorants therein.
The invention is particularly applicable to consuming odorants contained in the gaseous effluent from any plant, factory or facility in order to convert these odorants to non-objectionable matter and will be described with particular reference thereto; however, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention has other applications and may be advantageously employed in any number of other environments.
Many factories, chemical process plants, waste water treatment plants, sewage treatment plants and other like facilities produce malodorous gaseous effluents which are considered to be objectionable by persons who are exposed to them. Heretofore, any number of means have been variously employed in an effort to successfully overcome these objectionable odors. Among these prior efforts and techniques have been such devices as burners, ozonators, scrubbers and the injection of chemicals intended to alter or mask the malodorous species. However, and despite all these attempts to reduce objectionable odors, many facilities which have employed the available prior devices are still considered to produce objectionable odors.
Of all the various techniques known for consuming odorants in effluent gases, the simplest, most reliable and most effective method for substantially reducing or eliminating odors due to organic chemical species is generally considered to be a burner. However, most commercially available burners are not specifically designed for odor consuming use. The design of typical available burners, together with the low inlet pressure available with existing, economical blowers which deliver the effluent gas to the burners, results in insufficient mixing of the odorants into the flame, insufficient outlet temperature levels and insufficient outlet temperature uniformity. Insufficient outlet temperature levels or insufficient outlet temperature uniformity permits the escape of odorants back into the atmosphere because they are not oxidized in the cooler regions of the outlet gas stream.
An advantage is potentially available from a burner if the burner can be designed to operate over a wide range of input gas flow rates. With such a design and after serving to eliminate the principal source of odors emanating from a factory or other facility, the burner could later serve to also burn away other odorants which might be subsequently detected as emanating from other areas of the facility and which may then also be piped to the burner.